The British government has estimated 150,000 British children may have been shipped abroad between 1618 and 1967, most from the late 19th century onward. After 1920, most of the children went to Australia through programs run by the government, religious groups and children’s charities.

The programs, which ended 40 years ago, were intended to provide the children with a new start — and the Empire with a supply of sturdy white workers. But many children ended up in institutions where they were physically and sexually abused, or were sent to work as farm laborers.

At a ceremony in the Australian capital of Canberra attended by tearful former child migrants, Rudd apologized for his country’s role in the migration and extended condolences to the 7,000 survivors of the program who still live in Australia.

“We are sorry,” Rudd said. “Sorry that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused. Sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care. Sorry for the tragedy — the absolute tragedy — of childhoods lost.”

The apology comes one day after the British government said Prime Minister Gordon Brown would apologize for child migrant programs that sent children as young as 3 to Australia, Canada and other former colonies over three and a half centuries. The first group was sent to the Virginia Colony in 1618.

Rudd also apologized to the “forgotten Australians” — children who suffered in state care during the last century. According to a 2004 Australian Senate report, more than 500,000 children were placed in foster homes, orphanages and other institutions during the 20th century. Many were emotionally, physically and sexually abused in state care.

The Australian government has ruled out compensation, saying liability lay with state governments and churches that ran the institutions.

British High Commissioner Valerie Amos said her government had not yet addressed the compensation question.

Ian Thwaites, service manager of the Child Migrants Trust, which has advocated for child migrants in Australia for 22 years, said both the British and Australian governments were liable.

“It takes two governments working closely together to be able to make this mess and break the hearts of thousands of children and families,” said Thwaites.

Andrew Murray, a former Australian senator who was a child migrant from Britain to an orphanage in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, called on Australia to pay reparations.

John Hennessey, 72, who was born in Bristol, England, and sent to Australia, said he was beaten and sexually abused at a Christian boys home in Western Australia state. He wants compensation from Britain, which he said had deported children to the other side of the world and then abandoned them.

“The apology should have started from England. They were embarrassed and Australia shamed them into it,” he added.

The Forgotten Australians also welcomed the apology. Rod Braydon, 65, said he was raped at the age of 6 by a Salvation Army officer on his first night in a boys home in the city of Melbourne.

“When we reported this as kids, we were flogged to within an inch of our lives, locked up in dungeons and isolation cells,” said Braydon, who received a cash settlement from the Salvation Army for the abuse and is suing the Victoria state government for neglect.

A 2001 Australian report said between 6,000 and 30,000 children from Britain and Malta, often taken from unmarried mothers or impoverished families, were sent alone to Australia as migrants during the 20th century. Many of the children were told they were orphans, though most had either been abandoned or taken from their families by the state. Siblings were commonly split up once they arrived in Australia.

Authorities believed they were acting in the children’s best interests, but the migration also was intended to stop them from being a burden on the British state while supplying the receiving countries with potential workers.

A 1998 British parliamentary inquiry noted “a further motive was racist: the importation of ‘good white stock’ was seen as a desirable policy objective in the developing British Colonies.”

Australia had an immigration policy that favored British and white immigrants until the 1970s.

“We were used as white fodder,” Hennessey said. “The Archbishop met us at Fremantle (in Western Australia) and I can still remember his words. He said, ‘Welcome to Australia. We want white stock because we’re terrified of the yellow peril.'”

British Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said the child migrant policy was “a stain on our society.”

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4 Responses to This is What Happens When States Take Your Children

How can I go back to church when last week I intreated even the Pastor’s wife to join me to fast for the children caught up in these unfortunate situations and familiar abuses,and to my amazement she asked me if I had lately read the bible verse (old testament) about :what dso ever is good pleasant positive,etc.dwell on these. And then she sad she didn’t have the time to fast. I asked he why not do it on the Sabbath. She had no answer to that notation. Then the church as a whole with even one family with a foster child and another parent with a son who is a social worker stating that the cps usully hands the children over to family. Since Ihave been enlightening them they are all turning cold to me. How can I go to a church where I feel solitary but yet have a lot of people around me? Can you believe that even our churches are the main sell out to socialism?

Wrongful Interference with Contract is when parties are involved with deceptive practice to interfere with services that are under contract and avoiding to provide said services, so far every I do mean Children service case that terminated parental rights is wrongful interference. What I find so odd these state workers make recommendation for services such as supervised visitations ,and then those workers stall on providing services they recommend , why recommend if they have no intention of providing services , proof of Breach of contract if services are not provided for in a timely manor
then a judge must receive complaint from parents or attorney for contempt of court, so the judge has now entered into this binding contract by the judges order for the state to arrange services that the state had made recommendation for , so both parties now are involved in the issue of Wrongful Interference with Breach of Contract every CPS case is participant in Wrongful Interference with Contract, after all Department of human services children service is a State agency is meant to provide services to families instead this Federally subsidized agency takes children to avoid providing services. When state worker starts the case for investigation they are officially under contract to the family to provide services, the action of a case worker to recommend termination of parents’ rights is clear example of wrongful interference with this contract they are placed in, Breach of contract by not only the courts for not enforcing court orders or making the state agency follow and fulfil their own recommendations , but breach of contract both oral and written by the state agency that is under contract to provide services to families not destroy families for profit, when Children services comes in and takes children that is the beginning of Breach of contract through their actions of interfering with the process of the family ability to obtain program services and the action of Wrongful Interference with Contract after all these State agencies are under contract to provide services to families so two laws broken by this action done by said agency, read up on contract law

How can I go back to church when last week I intreated even the Pastor’s wife to join me to fast for the children caught up in these unfortunate situations and familiar abuses,and to my amazement she asked me if I had lately read the bible verse (old testament) about :what dso ever is good pleasant positive,etc.dwell on these. And then she sad she didn’t have the time to fast. I asked he why not do it on the Sabbath. She had no answer to that notation. Then the church as a whole with even one family with a foster child and another parent with a son who is a social worker stating that the cps usully hands the children over to family. Since Ihave been enlightening them they are all turning cold to me. How can I go to a church where I feel solitary but yet have a lot of people around me? Can you believe that even our churches are the main sell out to socialism?

Please exchange website url links with us as we want to support families and children uk and worldwide we need professionals and we need the public to voice your opinion now.. http://www.parentsinjusticegroupscotland.co.uk so if you can help us we will help you we are a worldwide forum for child stealing by the state and social workers adopting children for no reason.

We like to link with parent support groups mental health child abuse falsely accused and disibility groups worldwide please join our free website and blog your story or tell us about your group..

ABOUT US

We have been created by the need to fight widespread social care injustice and abuse of draconian state power.
Children are being ripped from their parents simply because they are considered “unconventional” or even single.

Just like pigs we rootle under the surface to find those golden nuggets of truth hidden beneath half truths, targets, idealised aims and a ” not my decision ” culture.

In fact we are the truffle P.I.G.S. of the social care world.

Our aim is to help and support parents who have lost their children through spurious reasons. Low income, untidy house, learning difficulties,disabled, bad diet, disorganised lifestyle or a perceived non cooperation with social services.

We don’t claim that these are fully acceptable but if the money wasted by the legal and social system was spent helping families with these difficulties there would be no need for their abusive and draconian behaviour.

The whole system cannot be seen to have made a mistake, so they cover up any dodgy decisions. Everyone has seen how government and bankers squirm out of responsibility for their actions. Even sympathetic solicitors have little chance against this state conspiracy.

The worst thing about the whole rotten business is that the children pay for the rest of their lives. And it doesn’t stop there. Their children end up suffering too. Three generations affected by inept decision making, it’s beyond criminal.

So please get in touch however hopeless and battered you feel. We can and will make a difference to you and your children.